Developing an infection can be complicated enough, but when the body's
immune system reacts by going into overdrive in the form of sepsis,
every second counts. The diagnosis needs to be swift and, if sepsis is
confirmed, interventions in the form of fluids and antibiotics must be
administered immediately. Because the global death rate from sepsis
remains painfully high — tens of millions each year
— stepped-up efforts to reduce mortality have been underway
on a global scale for at least the past decade. We’ll
devote an hour to this critical issue on the January
24 WIHI, A Partnership to Reduce Deaths from Sepsis.
There is progress to report on multiple continents where many health
care organizations have been working hard on sepsis, often as part of
international initiatives such as the Surviving
Sepsis Campaign and in concert
with professional societies such as the Society
of Critical Care Medicine. In
the US, where 25 percent of the 750,000 people who develop sepsis each
year die, North Shore–Long Island Jewish Health System has
reduced its sepsis mortality rate significantly. North
Shore–LIJ is now in the midst of a strategic partnership with
IHI to maintain and further these gains, and key learning has begun to
emerge.

We’ll explore the progress on reducing deaths from sepsis on
the January 24 WIHI with three clinical leads from North
Shore–LIJ and two improvement leaders from IHI. Early
detection and intervention are key, but in order to execute best
practices reliably, changing the culture and engaging the leadership of
the organization have proven essential. At North Shore–LIJ,
focusing on the emergency department has also been foundational to
testing best practices and spreading them to the rest of the hospital
system.

WIHI Host Madge Kaplan invites you to a very important discussion about
a critical problem that everyone in acute care needs to be aware of and
working on. Patients and families are getting engaged too. Bring your
progress and best practices, and get ready to ask lots of questions, on
the January 24th WIHI.Please
click here to enroll.